Gas turbines are continuously being modified to provide increased efficiency and performance. These modifications include the ability to operate at higher temperatures and under harsher conditions, which often requires material modifications and/or coatings to protect components from such temperatures and conditions. As more modifications are introduced, additional challenges are realized.
One modification to increase performance and efficiency involves forming gas turbine components, such as, but not limited to, airfoils, buckets (blades), bucket (blade) dovetails, nozzles (vanes), shrouds, combustor liners, combustor transition pieces, disks, ducts, augmentors, exhaust nozzles, and casings, from CMC. However, CMC components, particularly those CMC components which include thick solid sections, may be difficult to fully densify due to insufficient melt infiltration throughout the thick solid section.